


Alone

by Adeline_Hatter



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Conversations, Multi, Post-Episode: s12e10 The Timeless Children, Prison, Short Thought Piece, Space Prison, talking to yourself
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-03
Updated: 2020-05-03
Packaged: 2021-03-02 04:33:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 871
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23988922
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Adeline_Hatter/pseuds/Adeline_Hatter
Summary: The Doctor finds the time for a nap eventually
Relationships: The Doctor | Theta Sigma/The Master | Koschei (Doctor Who: Academy Era), The Doctor/The Master (Doctor Who), Thirteenth Doctor/The Master (Dhawan)
Comments: 5
Kudos: 53





	Alone

She’s always found concrete interesting as a material, humans used it as a base for buildings, roads, pavements, sculptures and once she’d seen someone eat it- No, wait that had been her, it had tasted of stone and wet, but also the twentieth century at the same time. 

Concrete is not particularly comfortable to lie against, but there’s no bed in her cell and she wonders if that’s purposefully cruel or just an oversight on the Prison architect's end, still, she’ll lie there and stare up at the ceiling anyway. 

Maybe she’ll take a nap, she’ll get out of this prison cell eventually, she knows that but… Naps weren’t something she came across easily in her line of work after all and she needed a nap. 

She closed her eyes against the ceiling, tried to ignore the sounds of guards patrolling- Two at a time, once every half hour -outside her door and let herself sleep. 

“Why did you tell Koschei we're so much more than him?”   
  
“Because I wanted to break him for once, instead of him always breaking me.”    
  
“He was already broken.” It’s a male voice in tone, it always is, he was who she had  _ thought  _ was her first life after all, she doesn’t need to open her eyes to know that the lad next to her is barely Ninety with dirty blonde hair and wide eyes, “He’s always been a bit broken, like me, like everyone else.”

The Doctor wonders if she’s dreaming up the presence of her past self, “Are you saying we’re broken?”

“What else are we? We’re only a conscience being after all, we have hearts.” Theta Sigma keeps on speaking, apparently not content yet and she can feel him joining her on the floor, hands on his stomach like her, old habits dying hard and all that, “We’re probably going to forgive him again, we always do.”

She groans, “I know, I’m going to be angry at him for awhile though.”

“When aren’t we angry at him?”   
  
“True.” The Doctor opens her eyes and whilst she knows that Theta is a hallucination, she can’t help but wonder how real he really was, “Why do we forgive him?”

Theta hums, the lyrical gallifreyan meeting her ears like pain and nostalgia all at once, “It’s the only thing we can do, it’s the only thing he ever pays attention to and believes for a few seconds that he’s worth it all to us and he is.” 

“I’ve been so shitty to him too.”    
  
“He’s done just as much to us.”

They lapse into silence and the Doctor expects to turn her head and find her youngest face gone again, conversation over but he stays, “I’m so angry at him.”   
  
“I know.”   
  
“It’s how I know we still care isn’t it? If I didn’t care I wouldn’t feel anger, it would be an endless sea of indifference- I would have pressed the button.” Her tiredness has seeped into every single one of her bones and when she finally does turn to look at herself properly, she realises that the young timelord is staring up at the ceiling now, “But I couldn’t do it, coward through and through.” 

His eyes scan the concrete over them, before he rolls over onto his side, a familiar position, “Better coward, better person… I’m glad we still care about Koschei, he’s all we’ve got after all.”

“Yeah.” She mutters back, closing her eyes again and wondering if she’s going more insane then she was already, “I want my friend back, I just want him back, I miss him so much.”

“I do too.” Theta Sigma replies, “Every single day, buried inside your memories, I’m lying on a hill staring up at the stars.” 

The tap to her forehead almost feels real, “How do I get him back?”   
  
“We chase him for one, maybe track down Ushas, she always seems to have a knack for finding us in the most awkward of moments.” The memory of a horrified face in a doorway slides into her mind and the Doctor finds herself laughing, genuinely laughing, “Oh, Drax and Mortimus too… Don’t know about Jelpax, depends on…” 

He trails off but she understands, “We find out who’s out there, we find out that we’re not alone.” She replies and can feel Theta beam at her. 

“Ushas is probably still on Siluria, we handed her dinosaurs two faces ago, she’ll still be there.” 

“Probably built a city, added a monarchy, people…” 

“Well, she was always the overachiever wasn’t she?” They laugh in unison now, “Mortimus is probably messing with the timeline somewhere, he’ll be the easiest to find and Drax... Just have to call him right?”

The Doctor looks at herself, “I have his number, he won’t pick up the first few times but…” 

“We’ll find our fam, Doctor, all of them…” Theta seems to think it over for a moment, “We should probably organise visits to everyone who’s still around out there too, not just the new three.” 

She closes her eyes again, “I’ll try.”

“You definitely will…”

When the Doctor opens her eyes again she’s alone in a cell in a maximum security prison. 

No time like the present to escape right?


End file.
